This Is American Soccer, US Soccer, MNT, WNT, and MLS - Tackling the subject of Soccer in the US, and worldwide.

Did I just learn why the negotiations over the collective bargaining agreement are so contentious? Did I find out just how disrespected the Vietnam league is? Or did I discover that MLS doesn’t think he’s worth it? There is plenty to learn from the professional path taken by Lee Nguyen, but at present, all I have are questions.

Talking to Nguyen back in November of last year it seemed certain he would be playing in a MLS uniform in 2010. Once high school player of the year and college freshman of the year, as recently as last fall Arsenal had nice things to say about the 23-year-old Texan who played within the national team system at almost every level. He’s spent time at PSV Eindhoven, Randers FC, and HAGL in Vietnam. In an environment where nearly every talented young American player runs from MLS to foreign countries for better competition and compensation, here is a guy who wants to come back home. Done and done, right? So why am I waking him up at 6:45 AM in Vietnam—Lee thankfully awake from the half-day time change and jet lag before his new season starts at the end of the month? Click HERE for the full story…

TIAS’s Senior Hair Band Correspondent scores world exclusive with the Group of Death

If you were one of the lucky few who snagged a t-shirt in Seattle during the Supporters Summit, than you might know the Group of Death. For the rest of you, it’s merely the hardest group, with the toughest teams, pooled together in one group during the World Cup draw–which goes down today at Noon, setting off a full day of wholly unique soccer events in New York…

Which brings us back to the Group of Death–not the group, but the band. The vagabond heavy metal band of soccer loving, hairspray abusing, face painting leather freaks that tours once every four years. Talk to them and it’s, “awesome this,” “melt off that” to the point where the music becomes the least of your problems when trying to glean any sort of information out of them. Or at least that was my experience with the band of misfits-doesn’t-even-get-it-close. The Group of Death. Why they wanted to do an interview with TIAS, I’ll never know. Should I feel proud? Ashamed? Or scared about just how easy it is to find me?

And on Friday, it will be very easy to find me, as it’s one of those great days to live in New York. World Cup draw at the international bar or restaurant of your choice from Noon-3. At 4pm I’ll be at Niketown NY to finish up my first on-camera work during Live With Landon, a streaming event broadcast live on Facebook. Then straight from there to Nevada Smiths for the opening night of GoD’s world tour, which I think is called ‘GoD Help Us’.

Somewhere while sitting down with the four members of the Group of Death, between their music making me self conscious and their juggling causing my ears to bleed, I was able to get in a few questions and three separate confrontations. Click HERE for the full story…

QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTES:

TIAS, Du Nord, The Original Winger, Soccer By Ives, and The Offside Rules will be hosting a party Friday night 9pm in downtown Seattle at Kell’s Irish Pub (FYI - bar charges $5 cover, which is not going to us). It’s a true soccer bar I’m told, should be a good time. Won’t you join us?

—-

New Podcast Coming To iTunes: WaitingForGaetjens.com
Hear me butcher first and last names and attempt to make co-host Greg Lalas laugh as he tries to bring serious analysis to the world of American soccer. We’re looking towards a weekly schedule to begin after a special week of several run-up shows revolving around MLS Cup. Those few shows will also be downloadable at MLSnet.com. The plan is to pull in the best guests we can and keep it entertaining and informative. Please check it out–RSL GM Garth Lagerway joins us tomorrow–and let us know who you would like to see on the guest list. We’ll get it right next time.

—-

Now back to regularly scheduled programming already in progress…

I can’t remember the last time I put up a player interview on the site, but I’ve been fascinated with Lee Nguyen for awhile now. And then over a stretch of one month this fall the 23-year-old attacker went from Vietnam superstar to Arsenal trainee to FC Dallas off-season practice attendee. Curious, I went looking for some info, but found few answers. Here’s this kid living large over in Vietnam, cover of GQ, etc, etc. But we never hear much about him Stateside. We can’t begin to pronounce his Vietnamese club team and know nothing of his life in the far East, which is entirely different from every American soccer player, maybe in history.

On the phone the Texas native with Vietnamese roots sounds like his fellow Texan Clint Dempsey–that rough southern drawl lazy on the crackling cell phone satellites…

Click HERE for the full story…

3 Comments // Leave a Comment

Four days in Mexico City and nothing to complain about. Well, there is that one thing. And as a new friend told me after the US MNT lost 2-1 to Mexico at Azteca, these photos would look a lot better if we won…

But as should have been obvious in the previous post, there is more to life than winning. Click HERE for the full story…

so, you’re crossing the border for usa v mexico on august 12 at azteca.

now what gringo? welcome to the TIAS and Du Nord travel special

Across the Rio Grande River, through the Sierra Madre Mountains, in the Basin of Mexico, next to the Volcano Popocatépetl cultural beauty sits amid chaos, built layer upon layer through history. If a city was soccer, it would be Mexico City and its 19 million inhabitants—history, brilliance, art, and madness.

Walking out into the thin air of Estadio Azteca you are greeted by the jeers of 100,000 Mexico fans. It is both incomprehensible and exhilarating, like the city itself. How can so many people fit in one place, and how is it possible that an American can find himself in the middle of it all? Azteca may be the best backdrop for a World Cup qualifier, Its wall of sound encircling a field, buzzing like a beehive.

This is Mexico City, a junction of history and people so big that you can’t understand it all, yet you can’t help but want to try. What better way to see one of the world’s largest cities than to combine it with a visit to Estadio Azteca for a World Cup qualifier? And what better way to take in a USA v Mexico than to mix it with Mexico’s fascinating history, outstanding food, and rich and diverse culture? Would it be too much to hope for a USA victory? Regardless of the result, this is the best trip a US soccer fan can take. Will you be there?

—-

Click HERE for the full story…

Laugh about it, shout about it / When you’ve got to choose / Every way you look at it, you lose
—-

Lost in the whirlwind tour of South Africa and the Confederations Cup, which brought outlets from Harper’s to Deadspin to what seemed like every newspaper in the country out for a week-long soccer columning festival, was the demise of Brad Friedel’s once heralded (here at least) soccer academy in Ohio. So why does that matter?

In the last two weeks I’ve received emails asking why I didn’t write anything about the Confederations Cup or when I would. I’m still wondering, what really is there to say? Dan Loney did the best job I’ve seen of basically saying just that while pointing out the US MNT is not that good and doesn’t have any depth and doesn’t have the best coach they could. Too many of the rubberneckers came with, as Loney put it, “nonsense like winning games and getting good performances out of our players.” So where should the attention be going? Click HERE for the full story…

The Third International Amateur Soccer Tournament- aka The Challenge for the Tiffany Trophy Cup - is going down in Washington, DC until April 11th for a select group of 17-year-olds. This year’s roster includes the D.C. United Academy Team, Blackburn Rovers FC of England, El Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica, Chivas de Corazón of Mexico, Real Madrid CF of Spain, Pachuca FC USA Internationals (Potomac, Maryland), Freestate Soccer Alliance Elite (Bowie, Maryland), and Great Falls A ‘91 Elite (Great Falls, Virginia).

As the games approached, the visiting foreign coaches agreed to answer a short survey. Only two came in, and as the tournament is going on this week, I thought I would throw them up. I tried to craft the questions to be generic enough for all to answer while at the same time hopefully pulling from them something more than generic. While my fears were realized with largely politically correct answers, I do think there is something here–that thing that is always around. One question above all else… Click HERE for the full story…

U.S. 2, MEXICO 0. AND NOW MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP

The wind was angry that night my friends, the only real surprise to a script (and score) U.S. Soccer has written before. Both countries added roughly the same ingredients, but only the U.S. looked to stir it up, even holding the ball better than anytime in recent memory.

Two goals and strong midfield play didn’t seal player of the match for young Bradley. It was the kind of night where nearly everything went right. There were a few breakdowns and Coach Bradley made the obvious subs–Ching wore out and Kljestan added less than his best. Given the opponent, I’d only ask for Torres instead of Clark, but the newfound possession game alone left fans with joker smiles after the game. “We might have turned a corner tonight,” one fan mused.

And god love Tim Howard

photo story after the jump…

Click HERE for the full story…

This past weekend’s game could be a turning point for the US MNT. Could be.

It was just another another game against a lesser concacaf opponent. But it did set the stage for a new generation of American soccer players to lay their claim to the national team. Now will they? They could.

Two games to close out the year. Two games to show up. Click HERE for the full story…

In the next week we should get a barrage of Olympic previews. I have mixed feelings about the international ritual but the cynicism goes on the back burner for soccer, which holds my attention even through the smog marketing mayhem. I’ll watch some of the television coverage of other sports thanks in large part to a lack of summer competition, and I’m always up for some environmental and geopolitical intrigue, but like many Chinese men, national team soccer is all I really care about. And that has nothing to do with it being the Olympics. Click HERE for the full story…